con't. Help Holiday Debt Disappear
6. Ditch the plastic. If you have a credit-card balance larger than your checking account, it's time to cut up the plastic - at least until you can pay off the full balance each month. If it helps, calculate how much you've paid in late fees and interest to your credit-card company in the past year, then imagine ripping up a pile of cash in that amount.
7. Stay busy. You know that cooking or tap dancing class you've always wanted to take? The soup kitchen where you planned to volunteer? Sign up. Keeping busy - preferably on your typical shopping-spree days or nights - can keep you away from the mall.
8. Buy nothing for a day. Started as a social protest against consumerism, Buy Nothing Day is traditionally observed on "Black Friday," the official holiday shopping season kickoff. Just pick a day - any day - and try to make it through 24 hours without spending a penny. Not on food, not on gas, not on breath mints, not shopping online - nothing. If you do have to buy something, only use cash (yours, not someone else's). This is another exercise in restraint that can help rein in spending.
For a little more fun, invite a friend or colleague to a buy-nothing-for-a-day challenge.
9. Save more. If you don't have it, you can't spend it. So start funneling more into savings. Your bank can automatically divert any amount from your direct deposit paychecks to one or more savings accounts. To start, try $20 a week. By the end of the year, you'll have socked away about $1,000 without much pain. You can even start several special savings accounts - ones for gifts, another for traveling expenses, etc. - so the year-end holiday bills aren't so overwhelming.
10. Pack a lunch. Eating at a sit-down restaurant, fast-food joint or even in the workplace cafeteria adds up. Let's say you spend $7 a day on lunch five days a week. That's $140 a month! Just packing one lunch a week can save $28 a month, or more than $300 a year! Plus, you'll likely consume fewer calories with a packed lunch than at, say, an all-you-can-eat Mexican buffet.
